Benefits expert John Elliott will discuss what you should be doing to prepare for retirement, and OPM Director Katherine Archuleta will talk about the status of phased retirement, the retirement-claims backlog and other civil service issues.
July 9, 2014

Industry needs to be "more creative and bold" when it comes to helping agencies solve their biggest challenges, says AT&T executive Casey Coleman, the former chief information officer at the General Services Administration.

Brian Miller, former inspector general at the General Services Administration, said IGs have a difficult job that often goes unnoticed. He gave Federal News Radio a behind-the-scenes look at how IGs balance mission, the media, agency relationships and a good sense of humor.

Sean C. Young and Benjamin J. Tran, two electronics engineers with the Air Force Research Lab created an aerial sensor that has helped U.S. service members to find and destroy
dangerous improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan.

The Service to America Medals honor federal employees who go above and beyond their
job descriptions to serve the public. For the next few months, Federal News Radio
will be speaking to the finalists. A civilian engineer is reshaping the way the
military performs operations in the air and on the field. Sean Young is an
electronics engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio. He helped save
soldiers' lives in Afghanistan by creating a new aerial sensor system to detect
improvised explosive devices. For his creativity, he is a finalist in the National
Security and International Affairs category of the 2014 Sammies awards. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to talk about his nomination. View a gallery of all the Sammies nominees. Read a Q&A with Sean Young.

As head of the Antarctic Sciences Section of the National Science Foundation's Division of Polar Programs, Scott Gerald Borg oversees the funding and helps plot the direction of scientific
research in Antarctica.

Helping coordinate the discovery of a new species of dinosaur is no ordinary accomplishment. But try discovering two new species and collecting a 15-million-year-old
water sample trapped half a mile below the surface of Antarctica. Scott Borg, head
of the Antarctic Sciences Section in the Division of Polar Programs at the National
Science Foundation, is a Service to America medal finalist in the Career Achievement
category. Borg and his team support university researchers and scientists to help make their scientific visions a reality. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he explains what draws him to this kind of work. View a photo gallery of
other SAMMIES finalists. Read a Q&A with Borg.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is making drinking water safer in Kenya and Uganda. It's a bread and butter issue for the development agency, but the solution is different. Jill Boezwinkle has taken a crowd-sourced idea and turned it into reality in the Dispensers for Safe Water program. Now, she is a finalist in the national security and international affairs category of the 2014 Sammies awards. She joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss her role in the Dispensers for Safe Water program.